4. General Procedures

See also:

4.3 Payment requests and recurring invoice payments

(a) The Payment Request form

Payments to individuals initiated by departments, other than advances or payments via the payroll, should be prepared and processed on the AP Payment Request Form (2,981kb). Examples include bursary payments to students, and allowed subsistence for visiting academics. Claims for reimbursement of payment made by individuals on behalf of the University should be made via the Expenses process.

The Payment Request Form may also be used for payments to organizations where an invoice would not normally be expected, e.g. repayment or distribution of grant funding, etc.

Completed forms must be authorized and then submitted to the Payments Team in the Finance Division for payment.

The Payments Team will accept original documents and signatures. Faxes, emails and electronic forms will not usually be accepted, although in exceptional circumstances they may be with the prior agreement of the Payments Manager.

Payment Request Forms must NOT be input to Oracle by departmental staff.

(b) Authorization of payment requests

Payment Request Forms must be signed by a preparer and at least one authorized signatory who is not the preparer. The same authorized signatory register is used for both Payment Requests and Expense Claims.

Under no circumstances will self-authorized requests be paid, nor those authorized by a close relative or member of staff junior to the payee except as specified in section 4.5.

Any amendments made to Payment Request Forms must be initialled by the individual authorizing the payment.

In signing a Payment Request Form authorized signatories are verifying that the following conditions are met:

Conditions for processing a payment request:
  • The payment is allowable, as defined by the University Payments Manual;
  • The request is mathematically correct and is accompanied by all necessary supporting documentation;
  • The specific items to which the request relates have not been previously paid for by the University or another third party;
  • The specific items to which the request relates are not subject to a duplicate claim or payment request currently in progress with the University or another third party;
  • Specifically in the case of claims against research funding, the payment does not contravene any funding rules imposed by sponsors;
  • The general ledger or grant code(s) specified are valid and contain sufficient funding to cover the claim;
  • That the payment can be justified in terms of the University's Value for Money policy.

Any attempt to submit a deliberately false or duplicate payment request will be treated as a serious disciplinary offence.

Recurring Invoice Payments

Repeat payments to students or other individuals that do not need to be processed via the payroll may be set up as recurring invoices, as may regular payments of a fixed value to suppliers and other bodies.

The AP Recurring Invoice Payment Request Form (33kb) form must be completed for each new set of payments, authorized by the holder of the budget against which the payments will be charged, then forwarded to the Finance Division's Payments Team for action.

Recurring invoices are payable on monthly or quarterly basis and last for 1 calendar year only (a maximum of 12 monthly or 4 quarterly payments).

Recurring invoices are not available where only one or two payments are required.

One calendar month should be allowed between the date of request and due date of the first payment. Where this is not possible, the initial payment should be made as a Payment Request and the Recurring Invoice Payment Request form sent for future payments.

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